Racism In Oklahoma

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s 2015 research, there are thirteen public spaces in Oklahoma dedicated to the extinct Confederate States of America. This is a problem in and of itself, but what may be the most shocking component of this statement is that Oklahoma was not a state during the Civil War. Why would a state excluded from the Confederate States of America, and even from the United States of America, at the time of the Civil War have statues of and schools named after confederate generals? The answer lies simply in the observance of racism in the United States. The confederate generals fought for the preservation of slavery in the Confederacy. The confederate flag waves in honor of a country established based on this

Museums and textbooks are the most appropriate places to have symbols and statues of the Confederacy; the fight to preserve slavery should not be publicly displayed for daily recognition and praise. The aim of taking down these images is not, and never was, to erase history. It truly is to take down images of a shameful and ugly American past that does not need to be honored. Zachary Fine, a writer from Louisiana who has penned many opinionated articles, writes, “By purging historical monuments in the name of contemporary values, we risk effacing the grievous errors that continue to inform the present” (Fine). This argument is ill-founded and simply false. Ceasing the glorification of corrupt historical figures does not erase them from history entirely. People will not forget the Civil War or the two sides that fought during it, as it will always be a lesson taught in history classes spanning the United States. Taking down confederate statues and confederate flags will, in fact, decrease the number of racist symbols in the United States, fostering the creation of more inclusive and diverse

African Americans have faced bigotry and hatred at the hands of the confederate generals that were glorified and honored with statues. According to a 2015 CNN poll of 1017 participants, 72% of black contributors felt that the Confederate flag represented racism. If a large majority of people of an affected group feel that something is racist and personally is offensive to them in some way, people of another race have no place to dismiss them and tell them that they are wrong. Black people surely do not want to be reminded of the injustices their ancestors faced on a day to day basis, and taking down racist confederate figures in public would be a step in the right direction toward fixing this issue. The Southern Poverty Law Center also reports that although the Confederate flag use decreased after the Civil War, its popularity rose again in the 1960s, “...It became a main-stay at Ku Klux Klan rallies as the organization launched a campaign of bombings, murders and other violence against African Americans and civil rights activist” (Booth). Racist groups and organizations would use the confederate flag as symbols for their own hate, further tarnishing the already-tainted image of what the confederate flag truly stands